


Tradition (Waiting Under the Mistletoe for You Remix)

by MusicalLuna



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bad Luck, Frigga Doesn't Mess Around, Getting Together, Hurt!Steve, Insecure!Steve, M/M, Mistletoe, not a christmas fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 15:36:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9663842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicalLuna/pseuds/MusicalLuna
Summary: It's not Christmas, but everyone knows you don't refuse a kiss under mistletoe no matter when it is.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fluffypanda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffypanda/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Waiting Under the Mistletoe for You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9050629) by [Fluffypanda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffypanda/pseuds/Fluffypanda). 



“Look up.”

Tony smirks in that way Steve knows means trouble.

Reluctantly, he tilts his head back and looks.

Hanging just above the end of the armor removal platform is a sprig of mistletoe.

And Steve, who had moved in to see how bad Tony's injuries were before he could slip away, had stepped right underneath it.

“Christmas was two months ago, why is that still up there?” he asks, voice climbing a full register.

Tony's smirk widens as he shrugs. “Oversight. I'm not complaining. Who'd pass up an opportunity to get a smackaroo from Captain America? Lay some sugar on me, sugar.”

Without even realizing he's doing it, Steve backs up, his face burning. Is that all he is to Tony? A joke? Doesn't anyone want to kiss him because he's Steve and not because he's Captain America?

Of course not.

That thought hurts, and being hurt makes bullies meaner, so Steve does what he always does when he gets hurt—he gets angry.

“You can kiss my ass,” he snaps and Tony blinks, seeming startled.

“Hey, what? What's with the third degree, Cap? I'm not going to make you. It's just a kiss.”

There's something strange about his expression and his voice, but adrenaline is barreling through Steve's blood and he can't think past the _hurtanger_ well enough to pin down what it is. “I'd like to see you try,” he sneers and then grits, “Go to medical,” eyes dropping briefly to the way Tony's carefully hovering a hand over his side.

Then he does an about face and stalks off into the elevator.

“Refusing a kiss under the mistletoe is bad luck you know!” Tony calls after him, sounding pissed off and confused in equal measures.

–

Steve knows when he takes a shine to someone, it makes him stupid.

At fourteen it had been, "Do you French?" to Beatrice Gardner, the first half-dozen times Bucky had dragged him along to the dance hall and he'd thought the girls might actually give him the time of day, and then of course the fondue question fiasco with Peggy.

He's not going to make a fool of himself this time though. He knows Tony doesn't like him. True, neither of them had been at their best when they first met, what with the influence of Loki's scepter, but where Steve had been flat-out wrong, Tony had been sniper-accurate.

Since the Battle of New York and asking all of the Avengers to move in, Tony's decorated the common spaces with enormous vintage portraits of Captain America. When he's not influenced by the scepter, Tony's downright affable, so Steve's not sure it's supposed to be anything more than a light-hearted jibe, but every time he looks at one of them, he thinks back to what Tony said on the helicarrier and it stings. The scales always tip in Tony's favor. He's worked harder, overcome more, busted his ass to help people and to better himself.

What has Steve done?

Been experimented on, gotten his best friend killed, and taken a seventy year nap. Tony was right.

So it's fine if Tony thinks the best part of Steve is Captain America—that's true. But Steve still has enough pride that he isn't about to let Tony get his kicks kissing Captain America when all Steve wants is for Tony to see him.

But only one person in eighty years has done that, so. That's that.

Steve likes Tony and Tony likes Captain America, but Steve's had enough heartache to last him a lifetime so he has no intention to take the consolation prize he's been offered, even if he really, really wants to. He's not going to be that pathetic.

But the minute he leaves the penthouse, things start to go awry.

The elevator doesn't line up to his floor completely.

When he tries to get out of the elevator, he trips on the half a foot of floor. His right arm gets caught in his unzipped suit, so he lands hard on the left. Pain spikes up to his shoulder.

Getting back to his feet takes some work, but he manages and gets back to his room.

There he steps on his brand new package of colored pencils--later he'll find that he apparently stepped on them just so and every one of them has cracked vertically and is now useless. In trying to get undressed, he gets stuck and has to tear the material to free himself. While he's trying to do that, he staggers into the the door to the bathroom and knocks the mirror hanging on the reverse loose. It smashes on the bathroom floor.

He can't go into the bathroom with glass shards everywhere, so he gets a broom (and knocks himself in the eye with the end of the handle) and sweeps up.

Then he steps on a shard he missed.

–

Steve ends up hobbling to the elevator with a hand towel wrapped around his foot—it won't stop bleeding, so he needs medical.

Tony is in the elevator.

Ordinarily, that wouldn't qualify as lousy luck, but following the unmitigated disaster of his attempt to get cleaned up and the mistletoe...thing, it's not something he feels good about.

Steve presses the button for the MedBay and keeps his eyes on the floor.

“Jesus,” Tony says, and Steve can feel his stare. “Did you go back out again? What the hell happened?”

“I...broke a mirror,” Steve replies stiffly. “Stepped on a piece I missed.”

“Your eye?”

Steve flushes and grits his teeth. “Hit myself with the broom.”

When they arrive on the MedBay floor, Tony holds the elevator door open for Steve and says, “No, you first, I insist.”

Steve wants to argue, but standing on his foot is agony.

–

Tony is only in medical twenty minutes. Steve, on the other hand, is given the wrong shot, and instead of dulling the pain in his foot, it seems to amplify it. That, plus a handful of other mishaps and he spends the entire afternoon there.

He's exhausted by the time they release him at quarter to seven. Part of him wants to go upstairs and just go to bed, but the team has established a tradition of meeting for dinner after every call and he can't miss that. It's one of the few times he feels normal.

So he drags himself upstairs.

This time the elevator stops too high and he has to step awkwardly down out of the elevator. He knocks his foot on the way out and has to bite down on his lip at the vicious stab of pain that garners.

In the kitchen, he hears Clint yelp, “Shit, shit!” and the pot on the stove in front of him starts flaming.

Clint slams a lid down over it.

Everyone else has turned to look at Steve and they're staring. They're also holding bowls of—presumably—whatever Clint just set on fire.

“You were hurt today?” Bruce says incredulously. “But you were fine when we got back.”

Steve sighs. “I wasn't hurt on the mission.

Clint has looked over and his eyes bulge a little. “You did that since we got back?”

“I can vouch for that,” Tony says. “The sling is new—what happened to your arm? Weren't you in medical?”

Steve sighs again and nods. “I fell off the examination table.”

More stares.

“It seems you have become the focus of some ill will,” Thor says. “If the season were not past, I would wager that you had angered my mother by flaunting the tradition of bestowing a kiss beneath the mistletoe.”

Steve feels a flush creep up the back of his neck. He carefully does not look in Tony's direction. “And if I had?”

Thor shakes his head. “That would be imprudent. Mother takes such offenses seriously; it would be wise to grant the kiss before your misfortune becomes too weighty to bear.”

Against his better judgment, Steve looks at Tony.

Tony is watching him. He licks his spoon and then raises one eyebrow.

Steve swallows.

It's not so bad. Frigga has to get bored of punishing him eventually, doesn't she?

“Hey, man,” Clint says, “I'm sorry, but the rest of dinner's unsalvageable.” He holds up the pot so Steve can see in to the blackened contents at the bottom.

“Cereal?” Steve asks hopefully, and hobbles over to sit at the bar.

“Coming up.”

Unfortunately, when he returns with the bowl, he slides it across the table. His expression as it slides right into Steve's lap would be hysterical on any other day.

“Tony, can I talk to you?” he blurts loudly, almost desperately.

Tony catches his eye and then says, “All right, Avengers Amscray.”

Natasha flicks him in the head for that, but they all gather up what they want and leave him and Tony alone in the kitchen.

“What can I do for you, Cap?” Tony asks when they're gone, gaze wary.

Steve runs his uninjured hand through his hair. “I don't know if it's true or not, but after today, I'd rather err on the side of caution. Would you—could you please—kiss me?”

Tony pops an oyster cracker in his mouth. “Sure. I have one requirement though.”

Steve shoulders stiffen.

“Tell me why you wouldn't before.”

Steve's mouth goes dry, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth. When he tries to swallow, his throat clicks. “I...because.” He sighs and covers his eyes. He should have just let Tony kiss him. This is so much worse. “Because I like you too much. And it hurts that you want to kiss Captain America and not me.”

Tony's eyes widen. “Cap—” He stops himself and then smiles ruefully. “Okay, I guess I can see where you got that impression. But—that's not the case. At all. I don't give a rat's ass about Captain America. I mean, his suit is hot, but he's not my best friend. He doesn't make me feel like I'm enough. Like I can actually atone. That's you.”

Steve swallows again, his heart suddenly beating fast inside his chest. “Then...Tony, will you kiss me?”

“Love to,” Tony murmurs, and closes the distance between them.


End file.
